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UTERINE HÆMORRHAGE AFTER LABOUR.
393 named by the Rev. Mr. Berkeley C7Lio?iVphe Carteri has been done in India, and also in England, with
fungus
ON THE TREATMENT OF ORCHITIS
as
BY INCISION. success. To the Editor of THE LANCET. Entertaining, as I do, the firm belief that the madura of which Dr. Shortt’s specimen wa.s, it cannot be foot, SiR,—You have given great prominence to the subject of an excellent example, is as essentially the result doubted, the treatment of orchitis by incision, by discussing the of I havefungus growth as other affected feet (and question in a leader in last week’s LANCET, and I shall feel described, it is not unbecoming to refer to the Transactions obliged if you will permit me to offer a few observations on of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, for theyears 1860 (chiefly), 1861 and 1862" (appendices), for the this matter. on ’which this conviction is based. At page 10S. It will be in the recollection of many of your readers that, of the volume for 1860, it is intimated that the latesome six years ago, I drew attention to the treatment of Professor Quekett failed to detect vegetable characters in orchitis by the plan of puncturing the testis ; a practice I Dr. Balling-all’s well-mounted specimens, which were kindly had accidentally, as it were, stumbled upon, and which I shown to me also. the clue to the true natureI with success at the time had adopted published (respecting which I Indeed, signal see no surmise put forth in THE my paper in the pages of THE LANCET. Since this period LANCET’S brief report), of these curious roe-like particles I have carried out this practice in every suitable case was derived from examination of other varieties of mycewhich presented itself at the hospital, and in cases in toma, first described in the Bombay Society’s Transactions. private as well, and I suppose that I must have punctured Most fully do I subscribe to the desirability of further the testis for acute orchitis in at least five hundred cases ; and special inquiry being made into the nature of thisand although I quite endorse your remark that in slight I may add, with attentive consideration attacks of orchitis incision is useless, I am justified by disease, prefaced, of what has been already advanced ; and with little hesitaample experience in stating this mode of treatment in severe tion do I predict that the vegetable parasite would then cases is not dangerous. of madura foot, and With the exception of two instances where some tempo- be admitted as the sole essential cause other allied affections. rary inflammatory mischief ensued after puncturing the Much, doubtless, remains to be done in India, but English testis, I have not met with a single instance where bad pathologists (like our scientific botanists) might now themresults of any kind have occurred. I have not met with To doubt is not to test. But selves a helping-hand. give one case where-as might have been expected-any fistulous to repeat, more fully if needed, what is already reported as communication with, or protrusion of, the seminiferous or to open a new line of inquiry-this is what is now tubules has occurred; nor have I seen a single instance done, wanted for the more complete elucidation of the common. itself has taken the after organ place where a wasting of form of the second variety of mycetoma, or the fungusthis treatment. When I first adopted this apparently disease of India. Respecting all other forms with which I heroic plan, and showed it to my pupils and friends, I was am acquainted, there is absolutely no ground for demur. assailed with all sorts of dismal portents-of degenerated I am, Sir, your obedient servant, organs, and other ills ; consequently I have been on the H. VANDYKE CARTER, M.D. Lond., look out for such occurrences ; and indeed I have met with 1870. Satara, January, Surgeon to Her Majesty’s Bombay Army. Army.. two instances where the testicle had become destroyed after acute inflammation, but in these two cases the ordinary methods of treatment-namely, leeches and tartar emetic, DR. C. J. B. WILLIAMS VERSUS THE DUKE AND usque ad nauseam, had been employed, but not incision. DUCHESS OF SOMERSET. M. Vidal de Cassis, who-originated this practice-a fact To the Editor of THE LANCET. unknown to me when I published my paper in THE LANCET which was published in your last number 400 at the time he wrote his work cases on letter, -11 operated upon SIR,—My Venereal Diseases," and his expedience is identical with was written chiefly because I thought it due to the Duchess. my own-viz., speedy relief of most of the .distressing symp- of Somerset to state that I received from her Grace no pertoms of orchitis, and an absence of any injurious results to mission to perform the operation of tracheotomy for the late the organ from the puncture. I was, in fact, even not aware at the* As illustrating the great relief which follows upon this Earl St. Maur. time that the I Duchess, or any relative, was present; norplan of treatment, may mention that patients have repeatedly come to me at the- hospital to submit to the treat- did I hear Dr. Williams say anything to the lady whom I ment a second time, having during a preceding attack of afterwards ascertained to be the Duchess, nor did I hear orchitis in the same or the other testis, so rapidly lost their her say anything to Dr. Williams before the operation. I was told, later, by Dr. Williams ;, that he used words acute sufferings by means of the incision through the tunica similar to those which I quoted, and which, you will observe, albuginea. As to the destruction or wasting of the testicle being I did not profess to quote exactly, but only gave theirproduced by a simple puncture into the body of the inflamed general effect. I did not see Mr. H. vVilliams1s letter before it was sent organ with a sharp, clean, narrow-bladed knife, I can neither believe nor understand it. It is the violence of the to you ; but he, called on me, and informed me verbally as what he was going to say. inflammatory process, as M.Vidal, and my friend Mr. Nunn, I am most happy to see that Dr. Williams is about to of the Middlesex Hospital, suggest, which does the mis. chief ; and that violence is subdued by the treatment] publish an account of this case, which will, doubtless, set advocate, and which I am sure, if properly tested, will su right all the inaccuracies of Sir J. D. Coleridge’s statement. Tna,t these inaccuracies-uncorrected as they were by thepersede all other methods in this very painful disorder. counsel on the other side-should have misled you is not I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, HENRY SMITH. SMITH:. surprising, nor did I mean to make it a matter of complaint; Wimpole-street, Feb. 22nd, 1870. I regret that my letter should have produced any such
hands)
grounds
-.
-
-
-
-
---
to
.
and
impression. FUNGUS-FOOT OF INDIA I have thought it my duty to write to you, partly on thethe Editor of THE LANCET. above point, and partly as to the duration of life after the SiR,—As it is possible the first.part of the report of the; operation, which I regard as an important feature in ther I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, Pathological Society’sproceedings, published in THE LANCET T. HOLMES. Clarges-street, March Sth, 1870 of December 11, 1869, may convey the impression that the fungous origin of the "roe-like" masses in the second and more common variety of mycetoma., or fungus-disease, was UTERINE HÆMORRHAGE AFTER LABOUR. hastily assumed, I beg permission, through your columns, To the Editor of THE LANCET. to observe that ordinary microscopic examination furnishes much was SiR,—I impressed with Mr. Broke Gallwey,’s but part of the collected evidence, even in the hands of an of mode arresting post-partum hæmorrhage, fts recorded by expert, and to suggest that an attempt be made by the him in the to committee your issue of the Sth January. In your number of gentlemen composing Society’s reproduce, cold water on by artificial cultivation of these 11 roe-likemasses, the 15th, Dr. Eobert Barnes tries THE
To
,
case.
the
to throw
394 the treatment. He says the bleeding may be arrested for all poor females affected with uterine disease may be a time by contraction of the uterus consequent upon the directed to his dispensary. It is needless to insist on the shock, but it will relax again, and the haemorrhage return. value of this measure, which is destined to alleviate the My object in troubling you with this communication is to sufferings of so large a portion of the female population of point out that by very simple means this subsequent re- Turin. laxation can be prevented. When the uterus is contracted The Belgian Medical Federation, which may be compared by the shock, let the operator compress it firmly with his in many points to the British Medical Association, has hands till a small bowl is brought to him, which, when rapidly attained the greatest success. It is now in prosplaced over the uterus and firmly retained in position by perous circumstances, and already numbers as many as means of a binder, most effectually prevents any relaxathirty-four provincial societies, with a total of nine hundred tion of the uterus and recurrence of the hæmorrhage. In members. the cases in which I have had recourse to this method, I Signore Miraglia, the well-known Italian Professor, has removed the bowl in from sixteen to twenty-four hours. just made a most curious gift to the Anatomical Museum The difficulty I have always found in cases of post-partum of Naples. It consists of the skulls of ten criminals, a few hæemorrhage has been to get the uterus to contract, not to of which had remained during more than sixty years stuck keep it contracted ; and should Mr. Gallwey’s method be up on the walls of Castel Capuano, a monument of the found to be even frequently successful, the best thanks of barbarous ages. The professor has added to this gift an the profession are due to him for having made it known to authentic history of the skulls, accompanied by various them.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant, physiological and anatomical considerations on their appear. J. J. HARDESTY. ance; and he purposes to adopt this as the subject-matter HARDESTY, L.R.C.P. & S. E. of a course of lectures which he will shortly deliver at Lochee, Dundee, Jan. 27th, 1870.
Naples. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
(FROM
OUR OWN
CORRESPONDENT.)
WITH deep regret I write to acquaint you with the death of Mr. Stanley Peacock, who died this morning, after an Mr. Peacock, unfortuillness of about fourteen days. nately, in making a post-mortem in a case of peritonitis, absorbed some matter through an abraded surface. Severe constitutional symptoms at once set in, followed by formation of abscess, and the usual concomitants of such an accident. Mr. Peacock only a few months since succeeded Dr. Bolton as house-surgeon to the Infirmary, but in that short time had made many friends, and had given much satisfaction by his ability and courteous activity. He was attended with great kindness by Drs. Charlton, Philipson, and Heath, and these gentlemen at an early period of his illness took a very gloomy view of his case. Mr. Peacock himself, too, considered his case hopeless. He was only in his twenty-eighth year, and had held the office of house-surgeon for about eight months. He was educated at the City of London School, under Dr. Mortimer, and gained high honours there. The news of his untimely death will be received in London, his native city, with great sorrow by a large circle of friends. Mr. Peacock was considered one oi the best anatomists of his day. He carried off gold and silvei medals at University College in his favourite pursuit, and he acted as demonstrator there for a considerable period He came down to Newcastle with very high testimonials. including a special recommendation from Sir H. Thompson There can be no doubt that, had his life been spared, h( would have occupied a high position in his profession. 11 might be mentioned here that Mr. Dodd, a student wh( assisted Mr. Peacock in his unfortunate post-mortem suffered severely too, but, fortunately, never was in great danger. This would go to show the malignant nature o: , the fluids in these cases, and the necessity of observing extreme caution in the conduct of examinations of thi; character. Newoastle-on-Tyne, March 8th, 1870.
,
’
Foreign Medical Intelligence. (FROM
OUR SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT.)f
Opening of a Dispensary for Diseases of Women in Turin— Success of the Belgian Medical Federation—A curious giftForeign, prizes open to medical men of all countries—Liberty of teaching in France—Banquet to an Italian doctor—Sanita1’y and meteorological condition of the Continent.
municipal authorities of Turin have decided on opening a Dispensary for the Diseases of Women, at the public expense. The new dispensary forms an annexe of THE
the lying-in wards of Professor Tibone, who has informed the medical men of the town, by circular, that henceforth
In my foreign chronicle in THE LANCET of the 5th ult., I gave you a complete list of the prizes of the Paris Academy of Medicine for the years 1870 and 1871. It was of the more importance to set this fully before the notice of your readers as the prizes of the Academy are open to the medical men of all countries. For the same reason, it is of interest to take note of the following prizes which have just been announced for competition by two other continental academies. Italy.—The Riberi Prize. This is an important prize, amounting to 20,000 lire, or £ 800. It will be bestowed in 1871, by the Turin Academy of Medicine, on the author of the best work, printed or manuscript, published during the triennial period 1868 to 1870, or on the author of a discovery made during the same lapse of time-the said work or discovery to be judged as having best contributed to the progress or benefit of the science of medicine. The works must be written in Italian, Latin, or French. Translations of other languages must be accompanied by the original. The works must be sent in to the Academy, free of all expense, on or before December 31st, 1870. Authors who desire to conceal their names must enclose them in a sealed envelope, according to the academical usage. The authors are invited to point out to the Academy such parts of their works as they consider more particularly worthy of interest. The last Riberi Prize was awarded to a German author. Belgium.-The Royal Academy of Belgium has set forth First question : the following programme of prizes : " Write out the history of vitulary (?) fever ; show the physiological conditions in which it takes rise; point out -
the character, the pathognomonic symptoms, the course and treatment of the affection, as well as the lesions which are discovered after death." A medal of 500 francs. Memoir to be sent in on or before Jan. lst, 1871: Second question: " On the employment of disinfecting substances in certain industrial arts, in agriculture, and in domestic employment." A medal of 600 francs. Memoirs to be sent in on or before May 1st, 1871.-Prize for 1872: " Search out the causes of typhoid fever, sporadic or endemic. Show the prophylaxis and treatment of this disease." Furthermore, the Academy desires the competitors, in making out the causes of typhoid fever, to investigate the question whether the magnetic power of the earth exerts any influence on the genesis of epidemical typhoid fever. A medal of 1000 francs. Memoirs to be sent in on or before March lst, 1872. France.—The Societe Protectrice de 1’Enfance has announced its annual prize, to be awarded in 1871. The prize will be a sum varying from 500 to 1000 francs, according to the value of the successful memoir. The subject chosen is the following:—" Investigate the causes of the excessive mortality of children during the first year of their existence, and the means of restricting it." Attention is called to the following points. The writers must, (1) Study in all its forms, and under all its aspects, the question of infanticide, such as it is defined by law-namely, the murder of a new-born child; (2) Describe the different circumstances which may determine death in children-abandonment; the absence, insufficiency, or bad quality of food, whether natural or artificial; cold, filth, want of proper
fungus
ON THE TREATMENT OF ORCHITIS
as
BY INCISION. success. To the Editor of THE LANCET. Entertaining, as I do, the firm belief that the madura of which Dr. Shortt’s specimen wa.s, it cannot be foot, SiR,—You have given great prominence to the subject of an excellent example, is as essentially the result doubted, the treatment of orchitis by incision, by discussing the of I havefungus growth as other affected feet (and question in a leader in last week’s LANCET, and I shall feel described, it is not unbecoming to refer to the Transactions obliged if you will permit me to offer a few observations on of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, for theyears 1860 (chiefly), 1861 and 1862" (appendices), for the this matter. on ’which this conviction is based. At page 10S. It will be in the recollection of many of your readers that, of the volume for 1860, it is intimated that the latesome six years ago, I drew attention to the treatment of Professor Quekett failed to detect vegetable characters in orchitis by the plan of puncturing the testis ; a practice I Dr. Balling-all’s well-mounted specimens, which were kindly had accidentally, as it were, stumbled upon, and which I shown to me also. the clue to the true natureI with success at the time had adopted published (respecting which I Indeed, signal see no surmise put forth in THE my paper in the pages of THE LANCET. Since this period LANCET’S brief report), of these curious roe-like particles I have carried out this practice in every suitable case was derived from examination of other varieties of mycewhich presented itself at the hospital, and in cases in toma, first described in the Bombay Society’s Transactions. private as well, and I suppose that I must have punctured Most fully do I subscribe to the desirability of further the testis for acute orchitis in at least five hundred cases ; and special inquiry being made into the nature of thisand although I quite endorse your remark that in slight I may add, with attentive consideration attacks of orchitis incision is useless, I am justified by disease, prefaced, of what has been already advanced ; and with little hesitaample experience in stating this mode of treatment in severe tion do I predict that the vegetable parasite would then cases is not dangerous. of madura foot, and With the exception of two instances where some tempo- be admitted as the sole essential cause other allied affections. rary inflammatory mischief ensued after puncturing the Much, doubtless, remains to be done in India, but English testis, I have not met with a single instance where bad pathologists (like our scientific botanists) might now themresults of any kind have occurred. I have not met with To doubt is not to test. But selves a helping-hand. give one case where-as might have been expected-any fistulous to repeat, more fully if needed, what is already reported as communication with, or protrusion of, the seminiferous or to open a new line of inquiry-this is what is now tubules has occurred; nor have I seen a single instance done, wanted for the more complete elucidation of the common. itself has taken the after organ place where a wasting of form of the second variety of mycetoma, or the fungusthis treatment. When I first adopted this apparently disease of India. Respecting all other forms with which I heroic plan, and showed it to my pupils and friends, I was am acquainted, there is absolutely no ground for demur. assailed with all sorts of dismal portents-of degenerated I am, Sir, your obedient servant, organs, and other ills ; consequently I have been on the H. VANDYKE CARTER, M.D. Lond., look out for such occurrences ; and indeed I have met with 1870. Satara, January, Surgeon to Her Majesty’s Bombay Army. Army.. two instances where the testicle had become destroyed after acute inflammation, but in these two cases the ordinary methods of treatment-namely, leeches and tartar emetic, DR. C. J. B. WILLIAMS VERSUS THE DUKE AND usque ad nauseam, had been employed, but not incision. DUCHESS OF SOMERSET. M. Vidal de Cassis, who-originated this practice-a fact To the Editor of THE LANCET. unknown to me when I published my paper in THE LANCET which was published in your last number 400 at the time he wrote his work cases on letter, -11 operated upon SIR,—My Venereal Diseases," and his expedience is identical with was written chiefly because I thought it due to the Duchess. my own-viz., speedy relief of most of the .distressing symp- of Somerset to state that I received from her Grace no pertoms of orchitis, and an absence of any injurious results to mission to perform the operation of tracheotomy for the late the organ from the puncture. I was, in fact, even not aware at the* As illustrating the great relief which follows upon this Earl St. Maur. time that the I Duchess, or any relative, was present; norplan of treatment, may mention that patients have repeatedly come to me at the- hospital to submit to the treat- did I hear Dr. Williams say anything to the lady whom I ment a second time, having during a preceding attack of afterwards ascertained to be the Duchess, nor did I hear orchitis in the same or the other testis, so rapidly lost their her say anything to Dr. Williams before the operation. I was told, later, by Dr. Williams ;, that he used words acute sufferings by means of the incision through the tunica similar to those which I quoted, and which, you will observe, albuginea. As to the destruction or wasting of the testicle being I did not profess to quote exactly, but only gave theirproduced by a simple puncture into the body of the inflamed general effect. I did not see Mr. H. vVilliams1s letter before it was sent organ with a sharp, clean, narrow-bladed knife, I can neither believe nor understand it. It is the violence of the to you ; but he, called on me, and informed me verbally as what he was going to say. inflammatory process, as M.Vidal, and my friend Mr. Nunn, I am most happy to see that Dr. Williams is about to of the Middlesex Hospital, suggest, which does the mis. chief ; and that violence is subdued by the treatment] publish an account of this case, which will, doubtless, set advocate, and which I am sure, if properly tested, will su right all the inaccuracies of Sir J. D. Coleridge’s statement. Tna,t these inaccuracies-uncorrected as they were by thepersede all other methods in this very painful disorder. counsel on the other side-should have misled you is not I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, HENRY SMITH. SMITH:. surprising, nor did I mean to make it a matter of complaint; Wimpole-street, Feb. 22nd, 1870. I regret that my letter should have produced any such
hands)
grounds
-.
-
-
-
-
---
to
.
and
impression. FUNGUS-FOOT OF INDIA I have thought it my duty to write to you, partly on thethe Editor of THE LANCET. above point, and partly as to the duration of life after the SiR,—As it is possible the first.part of the report of the; operation, which I regard as an important feature in ther I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, Pathological Society’sproceedings, published in THE LANCET T. HOLMES. Clarges-street, March Sth, 1870 of December 11, 1869, may convey the impression that the fungous origin of the "roe-like" masses in the second and more common variety of mycetoma., or fungus-disease, was UTERINE HÆMORRHAGE AFTER LABOUR. hastily assumed, I beg permission, through your columns, To the Editor of THE LANCET. to observe that ordinary microscopic examination furnishes much was SiR,—I impressed with Mr. Broke Gallwey,’s but part of the collected evidence, even in the hands of an of mode arresting post-partum hæmorrhage, fts recorded by expert, and to suggest that an attempt be made by the him in the to committee your issue of the Sth January. In your number of gentlemen composing Society’s reproduce, cold water on by artificial cultivation of these 11 roe-likemasses, the 15th, Dr. Eobert Barnes tries THE
To
,
case.
the
to throw
394 the treatment. He says the bleeding may be arrested for all poor females affected with uterine disease may be a time by contraction of the uterus consequent upon the directed to his dispensary. It is needless to insist on the shock, but it will relax again, and the haemorrhage return. value of this measure, which is destined to alleviate the My object in troubling you with this communication is to sufferings of so large a portion of the female population of point out that by very simple means this subsequent re- Turin. laxation can be prevented. When the uterus is contracted The Belgian Medical Federation, which may be compared by the shock, let the operator compress it firmly with his in many points to the British Medical Association, has hands till a small bowl is brought to him, which, when rapidly attained the greatest success. It is now in prosplaced over the uterus and firmly retained in position by perous circumstances, and already numbers as many as means of a binder, most effectually prevents any relaxathirty-four provincial societies, with a total of nine hundred tion of the uterus and recurrence of the hæmorrhage. In members. the cases in which I have had recourse to this method, I Signore Miraglia, the well-known Italian Professor, has removed the bowl in from sixteen to twenty-four hours. just made a most curious gift to the Anatomical Museum The difficulty I have always found in cases of post-partum of Naples. It consists of the skulls of ten criminals, a few hæemorrhage has been to get the uterus to contract, not to of which had remained during more than sixty years stuck keep it contracted ; and should Mr. Gallwey’s method be up on the walls of Castel Capuano, a monument of the found to be even frequently successful, the best thanks of barbarous ages. The professor has added to this gift an the profession are due to him for having made it known to authentic history of the skulls, accompanied by various them.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant, physiological and anatomical considerations on their appear. J. J. HARDESTY. ance; and he purposes to adopt this as the subject-matter HARDESTY, L.R.C.P. & S. E. of a course of lectures which he will shortly deliver at Lochee, Dundee, Jan. 27th, 1870.
Naples. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
(FROM
OUR OWN
CORRESPONDENT.)
WITH deep regret I write to acquaint you with the death of Mr. Stanley Peacock, who died this morning, after an Mr. Peacock, unfortuillness of about fourteen days. nately, in making a post-mortem in a case of peritonitis, absorbed some matter through an abraded surface. Severe constitutional symptoms at once set in, followed by formation of abscess, and the usual concomitants of such an accident. Mr. Peacock only a few months since succeeded Dr. Bolton as house-surgeon to the Infirmary, but in that short time had made many friends, and had given much satisfaction by his ability and courteous activity. He was attended with great kindness by Drs. Charlton, Philipson, and Heath, and these gentlemen at an early period of his illness took a very gloomy view of his case. Mr. Peacock himself, too, considered his case hopeless. He was only in his twenty-eighth year, and had held the office of house-surgeon for about eight months. He was educated at the City of London School, under Dr. Mortimer, and gained high honours there. The news of his untimely death will be received in London, his native city, with great sorrow by a large circle of friends. Mr. Peacock was considered one oi the best anatomists of his day. He carried off gold and silvei medals at University College in his favourite pursuit, and he acted as demonstrator there for a considerable period He came down to Newcastle with very high testimonials. including a special recommendation from Sir H. Thompson There can be no doubt that, had his life been spared, h( would have occupied a high position in his profession. 11 might be mentioned here that Mr. Dodd, a student wh( assisted Mr. Peacock in his unfortunate post-mortem suffered severely too, but, fortunately, never was in great danger. This would go to show the malignant nature o: , the fluids in these cases, and the necessity of observing extreme caution in the conduct of examinations of thi; character. Newoastle-on-Tyne, March 8th, 1870.
,
’
Foreign Medical Intelligence. (FROM
OUR SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT.)f
Opening of a Dispensary for Diseases of Women in Turin— Success of the Belgian Medical Federation—A curious giftForeign, prizes open to medical men of all countries—Liberty of teaching in France—Banquet to an Italian doctor—Sanita1’y and meteorological condition of the Continent.
municipal authorities of Turin have decided on opening a Dispensary for the Diseases of Women, at the public expense. The new dispensary forms an annexe of THE
the lying-in wards of Professor Tibone, who has informed the medical men of the town, by circular, that henceforth
In my foreign chronicle in THE LANCET of the 5th ult., I gave you a complete list of the prizes of the Paris Academy of Medicine for the years 1870 and 1871. It was of the more importance to set this fully before the notice of your readers as the prizes of the Academy are open to the medical men of all countries. For the same reason, it is of interest to take note of the following prizes which have just been announced for competition by two other continental academies. Italy.—The Riberi Prize. This is an important prize, amounting to 20,000 lire, or £ 800. It will be bestowed in 1871, by the Turin Academy of Medicine, on the author of the best work, printed or manuscript, published during the triennial period 1868 to 1870, or on the author of a discovery made during the same lapse of time-the said work or discovery to be judged as having best contributed to the progress or benefit of the science of medicine. The works must be written in Italian, Latin, or French. Translations of other languages must be accompanied by the original. The works must be sent in to the Academy, free of all expense, on or before December 31st, 1870. Authors who desire to conceal their names must enclose them in a sealed envelope, according to the academical usage. The authors are invited to point out to the Academy such parts of their works as they consider more particularly worthy of interest. The last Riberi Prize was awarded to a German author. Belgium.-The Royal Academy of Belgium has set forth First question : the following programme of prizes : " Write out the history of vitulary (?) fever ; show the physiological conditions in which it takes rise; point out -
the character, the pathognomonic symptoms, the course and treatment of the affection, as well as the lesions which are discovered after death." A medal of 500 francs. Memoir to be sent in on or before Jan. lst, 1871: Second question: " On the employment of disinfecting substances in certain industrial arts, in agriculture, and in domestic employment." A medal of 600 francs. Memoirs to be sent in on or before May 1st, 1871.-Prize for 1872: " Search out the causes of typhoid fever, sporadic or endemic. Show the prophylaxis and treatment of this disease." Furthermore, the Academy desires the competitors, in making out the causes of typhoid fever, to investigate the question whether the magnetic power of the earth exerts any influence on the genesis of epidemical typhoid fever. A medal of 1000 francs. Memoirs to be sent in on or before March lst, 1872. France.—The Societe Protectrice de 1’Enfance has announced its annual prize, to be awarded in 1871. The prize will be a sum varying from 500 to 1000 francs, according to the value of the successful memoir. The subject chosen is the following:—" Investigate the causes of the excessive mortality of children during the first year of their existence, and the means of restricting it." Attention is called to the following points. The writers must, (1) Study in all its forms, and under all its aspects, the question of infanticide, such as it is defined by law-namely, the murder of a new-born child; (2) Describe the different circumstances which may determine death in children-abandonment; the absence, insufficiency, or bad quality of food, whether natural or artificial; cold, filth, want of proper